Thirty Two...

While the rest of the city goes into panic mode and finishes all the gas at the local gas stations, I'm monitoring Hurricane Matthew primarily to figure out how many of my training runs will have to be rescheduled due to storm conditions...

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"Please let the weather be good. Please let the weather be good. Please let the weather be good"

It's not surprising that I'm still focused on running and marathon training because apparently that's all I talk about...

(and considering how often I mention Garmin I'm surprised they haven't made me a brand ambassador yet... 

even after I wrote them such a lovely letter).

In thirty two days I'll be running through the boroughs of New York City, taking in the sights and sounds of the Big Apple, and hoping that my training and the last several months of preparations will get me through the race injury free. 

I tell a lot of people that I don't have a time goal for New York, but I secretly do. I have several goals actually. My A goal is to finish the marathon in sub-five hours and thirty minutes. A sub-5:30:00 would be a great running self esteem booster for me but it means I need to run an average pace of 12:30 minutes/mile. I have not been running at that pace for a very long time. Once in a while I'll have a faster short run, but my typical long training runs have been very very slow. 

So I figured I needed a back up plan. My B goal is to do better than I did in Chicago. My finish time for the Chicago Marathon was 5:38:34

So even if I have a 12:54 average pace I should be able to beat my Chicago time and officially get a "marathon PR" right?

And because I'm an avid believer in Murphy's Law, I also have a back-up to my back-up plan. My C goal is to finish sub-6 hours. It's a generous finish time (when you consider what my A and B goals are) but it's definitely more consistent with the pace I've been maintaining on my longer training runs. At the end of the day I'll be glad once I finish with an official time, but I'm really hoping for my A goal. 

Everything is pretty much set for my New York trip. Hotel reservations were made months ago. The flights are booked and paid for. Travel related expenses have been budgeted. And my marathon running gear is almost 100% ready. The only thing left is to run my last 20 miler, a few other "shorter" long runs, and taper. Which brings me back to Hurricane Matthew and our current status (as of 8pm)...

By the weekend everything in South Florida should be back to normal (and gas stations will hopefully have gas again), which means there will be no negative impact on my Sunday long run. But on Thursday I may have to reschedule my mid-week run and go to the gym/do some cardio at home instead. Unless, of course, the Hurricane decides to change it's course again for the billionth time this week. 

How is your half/full marathon training going?

Do you have A, B and C goals for your races?

What's the worst natural disaster you've experienced? [Mine was when Hurricane Gilbert hit Jamaica in 1988]